We were recently asked how a company that appears to be in a pretty simple business - providing an electronic component to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) - can apply agile strategy thinking, and particularly the idea of creating and leveraging a platform for a variety of internal and external business models.
Though it may not be immediately apparent, even simple component providers have many options to develop innovative business and platform models. For example:
- providing a range of component solutions for different applications based on a common product or technology architecture
- understanding and helping OEMs solve problems around the component and how it integrates into the rest of the system / device
- aggregating adjacent components to their core component to provide subassemblies which make life easier for OEMs
- enabling others to provide subassemblies to OEMs
- assembling and quarterbacking a network of complementary component providers to evolve a common approach (technical and / or process) that streamlines the ecosystem for the OEM
- creating end customer brand awareness and demand (an "Intel inside" model)
- through some or all of the above, creating or helping to create industry standards.
Each of these options offers rich food for thought to component manfacturers seeking to develop innovative company models. No doubt there are many other ideas - what can you suggest?
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